Resident Evil: Revelations 2

It dawned on me the other day that I have made quite a few videos on Revelations 2 but never an actual review. In fact if you do a search for “Resident Evil Revelations 2 on Vita” my stuff typically comes up. However I’ve never really talked about the game itself. So let’s fix that now. Here is my full review on Resident Evil Revelations 2. And in true Daily Goat fashion I will concentrate more on the experience than the technical side of things.

The game takes place over four episodes, each one split into two chapters. The first part of each episode has you playing as Claire Redfield and the second as Barry Burton. Longtime fans of the series will instantly know these two. While it’s not necessary to know the background on the characters to enjoy the game, having a history with the series will definitely help with some of the story, especially the rare jokes and one-liners the game sneaks in.

Like the game that came before it, this feels closer to the early Resident Evil games. It’s like a cross between the early and late games, but with the nod going slightly more towards the later games. The game takes place largely in one environment, making a nice contained story like the early games. I really enjoyed that. There are also a few puzzles that are not too challenging that also remind me of earlier games. The reason I keep talking about the early games is because they are my favorite ones. I normally play Resident Evil games multiple times and I didn’t do that with 5, 6 or Revelations 1. However I have now played through this game on the PC, PS Vita and PS4 because I really enjoy it and had multiple copies for one reason or another. Mainly due to the videos I made.

I found that I enjoyed the game a lot on all three systems. The PC version performed the best as I expected but the PS4 version was right on par. In fact I could not tell a difference between them during gameplay. They looked identical and ran identically. The only difference is that the PS4 is pulling data from a 7200rpm hard drive(upgraded 1TB drive) where my PC is pulling the games off of a 10,000rpm drive and loading times were slightly better. The Vita…well the Vita certainly does run the game. It looks noticeably worse as expected but if you never saw the other versions you probably wouldn’t care all too much. And even though I had seen them prior to playing the Vita version after a few minutes I was sucked into it and didn’t care. With the latest patches it runs better than it did at launch and looks better. At launch the game was very bright and washed, but that’s fixed now.

Well, I said I wasn’t going to get into the technical parts of the game and I did anyway. From now on, we only talk about the experience. And it’s a great experience. As most games do, the game starts off strong. The first full episode is probably my favorite. It has the most time spent building atmosphere and the one with the highest creepy factor. I also enjoy that the game wastes no time in increasing your arsenal as well as firepower by way of upgrades. In no time you feel like you are well prepared for the fight ahead. The game certainly takes more of an action approach and decidedly less survival horror. While I suppose it technically could still be called Survival Horror, the game throws enough health and items at you that if you run out it’s your own fault. Ammo, health and inventory management are not something you need to worry about.

The actual gameplay feels great. The movement, the aiming and feedback from the weapons are all satisfying. The game gives you all the tools you need to win. Every encounter feels winnable with some more challenging than others. The difficulty is done well in this game and one of the reasons I keep coming back to it. It’s hard enough to be a bit challenging in areas but forgiving enough to feel like you can do it. The puzzles are the same way, only one stumped me and had me looking up the solution online and when I saw what it was I felt stupid for not trying it out. Typically though it’s your standard third person, zombie shooting affair. That’s a good thing.

As far as the story, to me it seemed focused on Moira, who is Barry’s daughter. Moira and Claire are trapped on an island and are trying to find a way off. Barry’s part of the campaign takes place months after Moira and Claire are captured and sent to the island so we get to see what is happening in current time through Barry and what events led to what he is experiencing via Claire and Moira’s chapters. It’s neat to go back and forth and see the aftermath of Claire and Moira’s decisions and storyline. You can even change up Barry’s campaign a little depending on how you dispatch certain enemies in Claire’s campaign.

The game plays out great. It’s fun, not very long and satisfying to play. The graphics look great, no complaints here. The sound is good and the characters feel great to use. If you have not picked this game up yet I would highly recommend it. It’s a great entry in the series and worth playing on whatever system you get it on, even the Vita.